User blog:BeastMan14/The Best TV Episodes of 2019
As the last year of the first decade of the Golden Age of Television drew you to a close, it left with us some genuinely incredible shows, often with standout episodes that stick with you long after the credits rolled. So, without further ado, here are my favorites from this year. 10: The Fool (Too Old to Die Young) *Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn *Written by: Nicolas Winding Refn and Ed Brubraker Like much of Refn's post-''Drive'' work, Too Old to Die Young was a gorgeous, brutal, and often deeply frustrating watch, but those willing to stick it out were rewarded with the odd gem here and there, the highlight of which is "The Fool". Sending Miles Teller's Martin on a hunt for a sadistic snuff pornographer enabled the show to shed the fat of it's supporting cast and dueling plotlines to become a taut, one-and-done thriller, full of strange characters and gorgeously shot ultraviolence. In a rare move for Refn, it's also very funny, with the last twenty minutes diverging from a slick, tense car chase to a farcical, Coen-esque shootout in the desert that ends, as the show itself repeatedly did, with no one really accomplishing or learning anything. 9: The Day That Wasn't (Umbrella Academy) *Directed by: Stephen Surjik *Written by: Sneha Koorse The best tragedies often set the audience up like Lucy with the football: cruelly dangling hope in front of us before casually yanking it away. "The Day that Wasn't" was an incredibly brutal showcase of that idea at work, as the painfully dysfunctional team of superpowered adopted siblings all got a chance at a happy ending, only for it to be thrown away in the final moments. It gave the cast a chance to really work, bouncing off each other and show new sides of characters we thought we knew, and also two of the shows standout scenes: Luthor and Alison's idealized dance and the tragic adventure of Klaus in Vietnam. Ultimately, it plays with our hearts so well you almost forget there's still four episodes to go. 8: The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events) *Directed by: Bo Welch *Written by: Daniel Handler and Joe Tracz The Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events was far better than it had any right to be, and by the end of it's run, it had ultimately surpassed the books in quality. This was helped by the ending, which chose to not only expand on it's characters (the reveal of Count Olaf's true backstory made his final moments even more heartbreaking, an incredible arc from a truly vile character) and give them a proper ending. "The End" managed to mix lump in throat catharsis and a sense of proper payoff, ultimately making the end of the story feeling like all the previous suffering had been worth it. And that, I would say, is very fortunate, indeed. 7: This Extraordinary Being (Watchmen) *Directed by: Stephen Williams *Written by: Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson Watchmen's best episodes were the ones that actively chose to focus on the strange, often sad, secondary characters at the heart of the story, and the absolute best was "This Extraordinary Being", which gave us the true origin story of the mysterious Hooded Justice, the vigilante that inspired it all. Shot in gorgeous black and white that evoked classic noir, the episode played with the idea of memory and how hatred destroys and consumes everyone in it's wake before giving us one of the show's biggest "oh shit!" reveals. 6: Interlude (The Righteous Gemstones) *Directed by: David Gordon Green *Written by: John Carcieri, Jeff Bradley, and Danny McBride Frankly, this deserves the spot on the merits alone of giving us "Misbehavin'", though if I must talk about the actual merits of the episode, I'd probably mention that it shined a spotlight on Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, the dearly departed matriarch of the family, and finally showed her role as the family's emotional core. While still very funny, it added an undercurrent of sadness to the modern-day interactions of the Gemstones, making it clear that these cartoonish buffoons are still people reeling from the loss of the one person that could truly keep them together. And of course, Jennifer Nettles, Walton Goggins, and John Goodman all give Emmy-worthy turns as we witness the moment that drove the trio apart, but really, I shouldn't have to explain any of this. Listen to "Misbehavin'" again, you fools. 5: 1:23:45 (Chernobyl) *Directed by: Johan Renck *Written by: Craig Mazin Chernobyl was a show entirely about bravery and sacrifice in the face of true devastation, and the horror of that was never laid more bare than it's first episode. Playing much like the start of a zombie movie, "1:23:45" quickly introduced to it's protagonists, the vast majority of whom are doomed as soon as they appear, as they were pitted against a rapidly melting nuclear reactor and it's fallout, and we can only watch as they're thoroughly unprepared for the true consequences of this event. Even when they do manage to finally stop the initial meltdown, it's all too clear that the worst is yet to come. 4: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Game of Thrones) *Directed by: David Nutter *Written by: Bryan Cogman It says a lot about the best episode of the final season of Games of Thrones was a quasi-bottle episode. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" was very much a breather, the last the show would really take before diving headfirst into the endgame, and it was all about the last time all the characters we knew and loved were really together. It did a brilliant job balancing everyone's various personalities and giving them all a moment in the spotlight and bringing their arcs full circle before ending on a killer cliffhanger. A shame about the rest of the show, really. 3: Chapter 23 (Legion) *Directed by: Dan Kwan *Written by: Olivia Dufault and Charles Yu The final season of Legion pulled out all the stops, telling a story of redemption that bent time and space, and it's highlight was the show's annual "monster of the week" style episode which introduced to an iconic new monster: the Time Demons, cackling monsters that devour and manipulate time for their own amusement. The episode, which forced all our heroes on the defensive, came at just the right time, as we got to see a sympathetic side of David, who had seemingly become a twisted version of himself, and delved into the minds of the women in his life. Syd's conversation with her younger self, where she reckons with a lifetime of pain and heatrbreak, is great, but the standout sequence is Lenny being forced to witness her daughter's entire life in the span of a minute. The time mechanics gave the show one last chance to throw it's characters, and it's audience, through a loop, unable to trust our own eyes, one last time before marching once more to a triumphant climax. 2: Part Three (Crisis on Infinite Earths) From the moment they announced it, it was clear DC had their own Endgame in the form of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a multiverse-hopping epic filled to the brim with the fanservice and bombastic, fantastical storytelling that we've grown to know and love. What we weren't expecting was the event to have it's Infinity War, and leave us hanging with a positively brutal cliffhanger in "Part Three". So, after an episode with moments like the pitch-perfect appearance of Black Lighting and a heartbreaking send-off for the 90's Barry Allen, it came as a devastating twist when it all came crumbling down around our heroes. And what are we told as the multiverse was seemingly destroyed, along with all but seven of our heroes? See you in January! Downright evil. Honorable Mentions *"A Quick One, While He's Away" (BoJack Horseman) *"Trouble the Water" (The Punisher) *"You Have Saved This City" (Arrow) 1: ronny/lily (Barry) *Directed by: Bill Hader *Written by: Alec Berg and Bill Hader "ronny/lily" was unlike anything I've ever seen on television. Maybe it was the brutal, fast-paced fight-scenes, or the surreal storytelling, or the gutbustingly funny slapstick violence that punctuated the episode, but it all came together to tell an unforgettable thirty minutes of television. Despite it's largely standalone status, the episode also served as a massive gamechanger for the show at large, forcing Barry, played wonderfully by the seemingly unstoppable Bill Hader, to reckon with his toxic relationship with Fuches as a simple hit spirals hilariously out of control. The fact that it was also directed and written by it's star is just the cherry on top. Category:Blog posts Category:Personal Ballot Category:2019 Reviews